[REQ] A universal length unit display

[Jon]

I'd love to see a little window (either as a separate window or integrated into the toolbar somehow) which display units in millimeters, decimal inches, and fraction inches whenever you draw something.
Anything like this out there?

[Dave R]

Are you kidding? What's wrong with the native measurements box?

[Jon]

I'm not kidding.
I model on the spot with someone always behind me asking for the measurements of "this and that", constantly switching between millimeters, decimal inches, and fraction inches. It would be nice to save the couple of seconds of having to go into the model info and change the units by having them right there.

[TIG]

There's already a tool to change units 'on the fly' by a simple toolbar button press.
Toggle Units v2.11 by Matt666
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=81391#p81391
You click the appropriate button to change the SKP's units, you can also change 'accuracy' +/- etc
Thereafter the model's displayed units are as you last set them.
There's also an option to choose which of all of the possible unit toggles go onto the toolbar...

[Dave R]

So you want to see dimensions displayed in all units at the same time? I get it.

[driven]

hi,

I been trying to find a way of doing something, I think, is similar to this request.

I want to 'echo' SB_VCB_LABEL + SB_VCB_VALUE and possibly also entity info text and value to Sketchup.active_model.add_note

but, I cant even get it in RC...
john

[Dan Rathbun]

The constants SB_VCB_LABEL & SB_VCB_VALUE are only integer flags that are used for the optional 2nd argument to the Sketchup.set_status_text() method.
It's only really useful within a custom ruby tool (and makes no sense to call for anyone else's tool, or a native tool, as they will likely be changed back before the user has a chance to read them.)

In other words, those constants are NOT the actual values of the statusbar text, VCB label nor VCB value. I have previously complained about the lack of an API method to GET all 3 of these values. (This is not a problem within a custom tool, as the coder knows the values and is the one setting them.)

PS: Pls move this thread to Developers forum.

[Dan Rathbun]

In my mind, I think what this needs is a new observer class, ie a StatusbarObserver with callbacks:
(or perhaps add them to the ToolsObserver class)
onStatusTextChange(tool_id,tool_name,oldtext,newtext) onVCBValueChange(tool_id,tool_name,oldval,newval) onVCBLabelChange(tool_id,tool_name,oldtext,newtext)

• some of the native tools share an id number, so the name args are needed. (.. also the Tool class needs tool_id and tool_name getter methods.)

[Jon]

@tig said:

There's already a tool to change units 'on the fly' by a simple toolbar button press.
Toggle Units v2.11 by Matt666
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=81391#p81391
You click the appropriate button to change the SKP's units, you can also change 'accuracy' +/- etc
Thereafter the model's displayed units are as you last set them.
There's also an option to choose which of all of the possible unit toggles go onto the toolbar...

I will definitely check that out. Thanks a lot!